DENVER—As CEO of Critical Path Security, Patrick Kelley travels more than 40 weeks a year giving talks to IT and cybersecurity professionals. Until recently, those sessions were nearly all technical in nature, explaining tools and systems for using AI or building a more secure network.

Lately that's changed.

“Almost every talk I do now is about mental health," he said. “People are really ready to hear this message."

Kelley, a 30-year IT security professional, pairs his work experience with his personal story of managing PTSD in his mental health talks. He told a June 25 breakout session at NRECA's Co-op Cyber Tech conference that the never-ending digital transformation, inadequate resources and staffing, new online threats and a lack of understanding about the pressures of cyber work have sent stress, anxiety and burnout in the cyber community to an all-time high.

“There's no clock-out time," he said. “And in this field, everyone actually IS out to get us."

He likened modern cyber work to a pressure cooker without a relief valve.

“When you hear the whistle on a pressure pot, you know everything's OK, good things are happening," he said. “But what happens if you take that valve away? It becomes a bomb."

Kelley says IT and cyber workers are susceptible to blaming themselves when they feel burned out and thinking it's their responsibility for “unburning out" themselves. He encouraged attendees to lean on their colleagues in the program the way operations crews do during outages and mutual aid events.

“The way that we move forward is to be more like the linemen in those trucks," he said. “We need to support each other like they do."

He said cyber folks are notoriously bad at finding healthy coping mechanisms to offset their stress, calling out isolation and substance abuse as particularly damaging.

“Every Slack team associated with cyber has a 'Bar' or 'Drink' channel," he said. “Few have one called 'Mental Health.'"

He offered five options for healthy coping:

1. Mandatory fun: “Take your PTO."
2. Journaling: “Get the thoughts out of your head. Stop the loop."
3. Mediation: “Take a break from the constant stream of thoughts."
4. Social support: “Maintain relationships with friends and family."
5. Get professional help: “There's no shame in talking to someone. I do."

Kelley closed with the advice that it's never too late to start working on your mental health, illustrated by a story about helping a friend reroute a section of stream on his farm.

“Any time it rained a lot, this one stretch would overflow its banks and flood the surrounding area," he said. “It was muddy all the time, and the flooding would do a lot of damage to the area."

After several consecutive days of shoring up the banks and digging and re-digging a channel with a backhoe, the stream finally started staying within its new banks. When Kelley went back several months later, the flooded area had completely regrown.

“That's what I'm talking about. It takes time and perseverance, and you have to be patient with yourself," he said. “That stream just didn't know there was a better way."